Saying that, such a move by Google wouldn't come as much of a surprise. Whatsapp is one of the most popular mobile apps of all time, providing a cross-platform messaging service for users of iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone devices. Whatsapp, which is a paid-for application, boasted recently that its users are sending one billion messages each day, and on New Years Eve last year it saw 18 billion messages sent in just 24 hours.

It's still unclear what Google might do with Whatsapp if a purchase does go ahead. However, speculation suggests that Google could poach Whatsapp staff to help to develop its own messaging service called Babble, which is expected to arrive later this year.

We've contacted Google for comment on the rumour, but it has yet to respond. µ